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Last year we had such an abundance of apricots, plums, pears and apples. With this fruit I made – jam, syrup, fruit leather, dried apricots, dried apples, applesauce, a variety of desserts and canned dozens of jars of each of them. All but a few jars of applesauce were eaten through the winter.

This summer is quite different. Our apricot crop amounted to 3 dozen apricots. They were good, but gone so quickly. The few plums ripened while we were out of town, so they too are gone. The pear tree supplied us with 4 pears to savor. Our apple harvest is also minimal. We have less than I gave away to one person last year. But I do have enough to have a dozen jars of applesauce canned for the winter, have enjoyed fresh apples, some baked desserts, and still have a few in the refrigerator for an apple salad, pie or crisp.

The illusive IKEA apple cake recipe is not to be found on the internet. What I did find is a recipe for a dried apple tart. I made some changes to the recipe and used the crust from a Bavarian apple torte recipe and came up with a cake very similar to IKEA’s apple cake. It’s been a while since I tasted the IKEA cake and I wish I remembered the taste of it better. Without further ado, here is my version.

Immediately spoon filling into shell, crumble topping evenly over filling. Bake cake on middle rack in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes; lower temperature to 375 and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until topping is golden. Cool in pan on a wire rack. When cool remove side of pan.

I couldn’t wait for the cake to cool, so sliced it while still warm and enjoyed every bite. In doing so I discovered that it slices much better when thoroughly cooled.

Let me know what you think. I have thought about making the syrup first, then adding the apples, and cooking for a shorter time. The IKEA cake has a vanilla sauce drizzled on top which I did not make, but it was still delicious. If you like a sweeter dessert, you can add more sugar to the filling. Enjoy!

Lots of apricots (see here and here), plums, and now apples. So far the windfall apples have provided plenty of fruit.

We have not picked any apples off the trees yet, but I have already canned sliced apples and applesauce that can be used this winter. I even made some desserts. Since we do not spray our fruit trees (organic) we find plenty of surprises in these windfall apples. That means there’s a lot of work that goes in to using them, but the end result is just as good as from perfect apples.